


A Little Too Late

by Gingerstorm101



Category: NCIS
Genre: Boss!Tony, Case Fic, Child!Tali, Dead!Ziva, Future, Gen, Where Tony never met Tali, assination, post-episode: s13ep23 Dead Letter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-11 02:56:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18421377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gingerstorm101/pseuds/Gingerstorm101
Summary: Years after the death of Ziva, a case comes up where Tony finds out that she’s keeping a secret from him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first multi chapter fic in a long time that was meant to be multi chapters. And I loved every minute of it! I hope to fish out some more of these! Anyways, I got this idea back last summer and started working on it back then, but I’m finally going to give it to you guys. I’ll be posting a new chapter every few days, there are 7 chapters in total. I hope you enjoy it!

The pop music rings loudly in her car as she speeds around the corner, making a quick stop at the targeted house comes into sight. Spotting her brother's car parked in the driveway to the house, she pulls in behind him, hastily turns off the engine, and jumps out of the car. Running over an hour late she is surprised he hadn't called her.

Walking around the back of the semi, she slips into the back door. "Steve!" She calls. "Sorry I'm late, there was an accident off of Main, many people are late for work because of it. You wouldn't believe the number of emergency vehicles across the northbound, even part of the southbound was blocked!" Ashley continues, walking through the house. "Hello? Steve?" Stepping into the living room, she freezes, her hands shaking as they raise to her mouth. Less than a moment passes before she lets out a high-pitched scream. On the floor before her lays a man, her brother, with a single gunshot through his head.

***

Tony was becoming more and more like him every day. He didn't mean to, it just… Happened. He walks into the squad room with a coffee in his right hand and a folder in his left. Tossing the folder onto the desk across from him, he addresses his newest agent. "Do it again, O'Riley." He didn't see the jaw drop on the young man, instead taking a swig of his drink and turned towards his desk, sitting down to check his emails.

O'Riley looks over to McGee, the file in his hand. "Again?"

"Don't take it too hard, Josh. Everyone has to rewrite their case report at least twice." The senior field agent reassures the young man.

Tony laughs. "Don't lie to the boy, Timmy." He catches his friend's eye, "You never had to rewrite yours." O'Riley visibly deflates before him.

McGee smirks. "But you had to rewrite yours three times, ain't that right, boss?" Tony stiffens and glares at him. Out of the corner of his eye, the newest agent sighs in relief.

On the other side of the bullpen, Agent Johnson smiles, her hand folded in front of her. "Don't worry Josh, I also had to redo mine."

O'Riley opens his mouth to reply but is cut off by the phone on Tony's desk ringing.

"DiNozzo," McGee looks over to his boss, taking in the signs and putting things away. "Yeah, got it." Hanging up, he grabs his coffee and his bag. "Grab your gear."

McGee was the first one to leave his desk, closely followed by Johnson and last, O'Riley running after the team and into the elevator.

***

Tony walks into the living room of the semi, his mind elsewhere as he takes in the pictures of a man with his parents and sister, and even a few with his friends. The pictures reminding him of a certain Israeli woman, and the photos she had on display at her apartment before she packed it all up and left it behind. His heart still hurts from that day she told him she was going back to her birthplace, and still broken from the day he had left her behind there, all those years ago.

A flash from the camera brings Tony back to the present moment, blinking away the blindness. "Sorry Boss," the young agent apologies, lowering the camera. "I thought you saw m- I should have waited."

"Careful O'Riley, you've been an agent for two months now, you should know to keep an eye all around, and not just what's in front of you. Got it?" He nods, shifting on his feet before returning to the crime scene.

Tony looks around the scene, watching McGee dust for prints along the door. "Got anything, Tim?" He says quietly, his voice just above a whisper, crouching down to a level with his Senior Field Agent.

McGee hummed, taking a picture. "Just one." Taking the crime scene kit to dust around the evidence he has found. "Just this bloody print. Looks like there was a child involved, considering the size." He says, finding nothing to go along with the first print. "But other than this, it looks like a clean job, I don't see a single print anywhere near this door besides the bloody one."

"If there was a child involved, it wouldn't be one from this household, the guy has pictures of everyone except a child. Doesn't even look like he's married." He looks over at his longest coworker, both giving each other a confused look. "You positive that this is a child's fingerprint, McGoo?"

Rolling his eyes, the man answers. "I'm positive Tony, this finger is too small to be a woman's print. It has to be a child." McGee pulls out a swab to sample the blood on the doorframe. "And from the lack of prints. I'm determined that this might just be a professional hit." Tony didn't need to say anymore, knowing that the other man would dust for prints all over the house.

Tony looks around the room, particularly the floor. Something was missing. "McGee," The man looks up in question. "Did you already collect the shell?"  
He shakes his head, lowering the brush. "There wasn't any, Tony, the guy must have policed his brass."

Tony nods, agreeing with his earlier assessment. "Johnson!" He calls for his final agent, who walks into the room with Palmer right behind her. The Medical Examiner gets straight to work by himself, getting assistance from Josh.

"Yes, boss?"

He steps over to the woman, out of McGee's way. "What did the witness have to say?"

Sandra clears her throat, flipping open her notebook. "Ashley Morgan, sister to our victim, Stephen Morgan, was supposed to have breakfast together, last heard from him when she had left her house at 7:30 this morning, through texting, got stuck in traffic and was over an hour late. At 9:30, she came through the backdoor to find him dead in the living room."

He nods to his agent before calling over to Palmer. "Jimmy, when did this guy die?"

"Uh," The medical examiner hesitates. "Death between two and three hours ago." Between seven and eight this morning.

"It matches up with the witness' statement, she last talked to her brother at 7:30, Palmer, must have been shortly after that." Making quick notes, Tony orders Sandra to help McGee to dust the house. Tony wanders around the small house checking for anything that might be out of place. It didn't take long before he stopped in front of O'Riley. "Josh, what seems odd about this situation?"

The young man looks around the room, taking notice of the furniture. "The house is clean?"  
"Well, besides that, O'Riley."

"It doesn't look like there was a struggle."

"I can second that." Palmer jumps in.

Tony nods to the two. "Exactly. In what world would a man who has a gun pointed at him, not struggle to get away?"

"Well, actually boss, there are many-"

"That was a rhetorical question O'Riley, keep up!" He knew the boy was still getting used to how he handled the team, but being part of a co-op group with a different team didn't get him much in learning how Anthony DiNozzo lead his team. He would be lost if Gibbs hadn't retired. "You don't just let a stranger into your house, especially if they are armed, and not struggle. That could only mean one thing…" He leaves the end of his statement open for his probie. After a moment the boy was still silent. He jesters to Josh, hoping to give him a clue.

"Oh!" O'Riley straightens his back. "He knew his attacker!" It will take time, but the boy was growing into a decent investigator. Tony pinched the bridge of his nose, he had a lot of work to do with this Probie.

***

With his third cup of coffee in his hand, Tony walks into the squad room to see his team hard at work. This is what he likes to see, and what he guesses what Gibbs liked to see before he retired all those years ago. But it was coming onto lunchtime, and the team should have enough information on the victim. "What do you got?" He asks before taking a sip.

Around the bullpen, the team quickly gets to their feet, and the plasma screen switches on, McGee grabs the clicker, standing in the lineup beside their boss.

They start.

"Sergeant Stephen Morgan, age 27, lives with a roommate, Carl Romone, currently serving in Afghanistan and won't be back for another five months. Other than Carl, Stephen is single and lives alone."

"His only family is his younger sister, Ashley, who found him this morning after a brief conversation with him only minutes before his death. Both of his parents died in a car crash when he was 18, he stepped up and took care of his sister."

"Stephen lives off of his military salary as all the money they would have inherited went towards their mother's gambling debt."

Tony scans over the evidence in front of him, pondering. "Anything on the bloody print we found?"

O'Riley hit the clicker, pulling up the print with a question mark photo beside it. He hid his smirk. "We are still waiting on the results from Abby."

***

The ding of the bell indicates to him, he was in the basement, armed with a Caf-Pow, he and McGee walk into the Forensic lab. He walks to the beat of the music, his senior agent bobbing his head. "New music, Abs?" He asks the woman in the lab coat.

Abby spins around in her spot, her skirt flaring up as she twirled. "Uh, huh! It's my friends' band, Franken Matter!" She says loudly, probably going deaf after years of concerts.

"Franken-"

"-Matter?" The two men question, glancing over at one another, brows arching.

"Yah-huh!" The woman continues to talk to McGee about the twins.

Tony takes a pace around the room, watching as the machines worked on their assigned duties as the two catch up. The room has changed little in the last twenty-five years, but the upgraded equipment fawns over and treats like her children. Something that the woman never had, and will probably stay that way. Out of all the members of the team, McGee and Palmer were the only ones to really settle down and have a family. Maybe it was his biggest regret, but that ship sailed when the love of his life passed away in a house fire.  
He blinks twice, focusing his mind back on the present. "Do you got anything, Abby?"

She twirls around, her gaze landing on him. "There wasn't much evidence to work on, as you guys said, the house was rather tidy for a murder to take place. The only fingerprints I got were from the victim, his sister, and our mystery child, so I'm just waiting on that. The blood is an ‘A' Positive, doesn't match Stephen Morgan or his sister."

"Did Jimmy retrieve the bullet?"

"Yes," Abby faces her computer screen, pulling up the squished bullet fragment. "But we have little to work with, if we had the shell case, I could have gotten more from it."

"But we don't..." He says with a frown.

"But we don't." She repeats. The room goes quiet for a minute before Tony hears the beeping of Abby's computer. He glances over to see ‘100% Match' written across the screen. With a couple of clicks of the keyboard, she comments. "This isn't right."

Realization dawned on him when he looks up at the screen. It couldn't possibly be correct, the person on the screen couldn't possibly exist.  
Before him was a picture of a little girl with dark brown curly locks and emerald green eyes. Her name none other than Talia A. David.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next chapter! I think I'm going to be posting every other day, as long as I have time before or after work. Enjoy!

Time froze around him as his heart stops. He knew it couldn't possibly be true. It just couldn't be true.

  
‘I lost my sister, Tali, last year in a Hamas suicide bombing. She was 16 and the best of us.'

  
He swallows at the memory. Abby and McGee stare at him as if he had grown a second head in the time he has stood in this spot. "I only know one person with that name." He stutters out, his throat catching, making it hard to breathe. The two stand before him, gesturing for him to continue. Surely they have heard of the story, surely Ziva had mentioned her sister to the rest of the team. Or was he the only one to have gotten her name? To have known her history? "Ziva's little sister. But this girl is too young to be that Tali."

  
"Obviously." Abby comments, folding her arms.

  
He pulls out his phone and calls the one man who can get him the information he needs. "Natalia, get me the director. Something has come up."

  
***

 

"Orli, long time no see." Tony's comment was dry, but not unwelcoming.

  
"I am not surprised, Tony, after Ziva died, there was not much left to talk about after you killed Trent Kort." His heart clenches at the memory of that day. "What is there to talk about now?"

  
Nodding to McGee at the desk beside him, the image is brought to the screen. "Earlier today, we got a fingerprint match to 10-year-old, Talia David." He pauses, his tongue clicking the roof of his mouth. "We ask if you recognize her?"

  
Orli was quiet for a minute, looking over the girl in the picture. "Where did you get this match?" She asks, interested.

  
"From the customs at the international airport, crossing into the country. From what we found, she came from Israel a week ago."

  
"Yes," Her thick accent lathers the single word, Tony's temper slowly rising. "Talia is Ziva's daughter, she went missing eight years ago, presumingly kidnapped by the same people who had her murdered."

  
"And who exactly is the girl's father?" His fist clenched beside him, hiding them from the woman's view.

  
She didn't skip a beat. "You are."

  
He grounds out, "And you see fit to just now tell me?" Oh, he was pissed, outright pissed. "And why is this the first time I'm hearing about this, madam?" Her eyes shifted, not meeting his gaze for a moment before staring straight ahead.

  
"It was not my place to tell." Short and straight to the point. "But you already figured that out," She folders her hands in front of her. "Why exactly did you call?"

  
"Tali's," Tony's heart skips a beat. "we found a Bloody fingerprint at the crime scene this morning. We figured she somehow knew the Sergeant, but now knowing this new information, I suspect otherwise-"

  
"-She could be the murderer?"

  
"I would say her captors." He smirks, crossing his arms over his chest. "But if you think a 10-year-old could take down a full grown, fully trained Marine, without a struggle, then I'm impressed."

 

"Don't underestimate a David, Anthony DiNozzo."

  
***

  
He steps out of MTAC, throwing his head he lets out a deep sigh. Having a daughter was not something he was expecting to hear today. Or ever. He had requested the INP from Orli, the Israeli equivalent of AFIS, he wants to make sure that this was the same girl that went missing from her burned down farmhouse eight years ago. Abby can do a blood test to confirm that this was his daughter, they had a blood sample. Just need to make sure it is hers. Raising his phone, he calls the woman and makes it happen.

  
He takes a moment to himself, his worries lie in the basement. He was this close to confirming he had a daughter with the woman he loves. But finding out that she had been kidnapped from her home on the same day someone killed her mother? Who would take a two-year-old? He had more questions than answers along with a murder to solve.

  
Inhaling, he walks to the elevator; he had something he needed to do before he found out the results.

  
The swoosh of the Autopsy doors welcomes him to the cool room. He spots Jimmy leaning over the victim, hands deep in his gut. "Palmer!" The medical examiner looks up at him, pulling out what looks like the man's kidney as he greets the team leader. "What d’you got for me?"

  
Placing the body part in the scale, Jimmy clears his throat. "There wasn't much I could get from the Sergeant, he was in peak fitness shape, so finding a lack of defensive marks on his forearms and hands is interesting." The medical examiner explains lifting the arms to Tony, showing the lack of bruising and swelling on the knuckles and forearms. "The only marks on his body was the single bullet wound to the forehead." Tony looks down at the head, oddly to use to the top of the head cut off. "I found the bullet in his brain, it had ricocheted off of the back of the skull, leaving a small dent. I took a sample of it and sent it up to Abby."

  
"Good, good." Tony nodded, glancing up at the man. The room was silent for a moment before he finally asked. "Did you know Ziva had a daughter?" He expecting Palmer to drop something, but the man wasn't holding anything that would bang or clang on the table or floor. "Yeah, I didn't think so."

  
He moves to turn away, making it to the door before the other man finally says something.

  
"Why wouldn't she have told you?"

  
Tony's heart broke again, finally hearing the words aloud. "I don't know, Jimmy." He sighs.

  
***

  
"It's a match, Tony. The fingerprint and blood we found at the crime scene belong to Talia Antonia DiNozzo."

  
The answer is straight to the point, and one he wasn't sure if he really wanted to hear. This little girl, who was kidnapped on Israeli soil, was here in the United States. But why? He has so many more questions that need to be answered. And the only person who could give him almost all of them was dead.

  
McGee steps up beside him, staring at the picture of the two-year-old from the missing case report. Even at such a young age, he can see Ziva in her. In her cheeks. Her hair. But her eyes? It's like looking in a mirror.

  
"Why change her name to David? Wouldn't it arouse suspicion?" He asks.

  
"Deputy Director David? Couldn't be Daddy, now could it?"

  
"David is a common name in Israel."

  
"From what I've been told, it's a popular name. She would have slipped under the radar." McGee didn't question him on where he had learned it, taking his word. "Abby, call me when you find out more information on what little evidence we have. McGee, get the team to continue to search for leads. I want every and any asshole who could have a grudge on Sergeant Morgan. Narrow it down even further to who could have known Tali." He says facing the man meeting his eye. McGee nods, quickly looking over to Abby before staring back into his boss' eyes. "I want you to look up anything you got on the case file from when Ziva died," He felt his heart tighten at the word. "Get Gabby to translate it if you must. Orli should have sent it over not too long ago. I want my best man to find out who kidnapped my daughter. Even if I'm 8 years too late."

  
And with that, Tony walks out of the door and into the elevator. He had some place to be.

  
***

  
The drive to the house took him less time than he had expected even though the time had never changed. But his thoughts aren't organized, nor was he ready for this conversation. Sitting in the driveway, he works on gathering his thoughts, he can't seem to find the right words though.

  
A knock on his passenger window startles him, he glances up to find his old boss standing on the other side of his door. Exhaling, he opens the door and slips out, then crossing his arms atop the car roof, not saying a word.

 

"Can I help you with something, DiNozzo?"

  
Stepping back, he closes the car door and makes his way to the front door of the house. "This isn't a conversation for all ears, Boss." Taking the hint, the old man follows him into the house.  
Once inside, the two sit down on the couch, Tony not looking at his former boss, just staring into the fireplace.

  
"I don't have all day, Tony, spit it out." Gibbs sighs, Tony smirks.

  
"You're retired, Boss, you do have all day." It still shocks him when he receives the head slap even though he should have seen it coming. "Ziva…" He hears the intake of breath at his partner's name. "She had a daughter."

  
"Tony." He hears the warning in the man's voice, but he pushes on anyway.

  
"My daughter, Gibbs." His head shoots up at the man, finding his old boss staring at him, utterly shocked. "And she never told me."

  
After years of pent of emotion and frustration, tears finally spill from his eyes. Tears that should have fallen when he said his goodbye to her. To the moment the farmhouse blew up. To when she was pronounced dead by Orli. To the yearly anniversary, he endures on his own, of not being there to protect his ninja. But now, now is when they fall, when he's talking to his old boss, who was next in line closest to Ziva, knew half of her secrets. The man who would have walked the woman down the aisle.

  
Now he cries.

  
He feels the clap of Gibbs' hand clamping onto his shoulder, and he cries harder. "Why wouldn't she tell me? What was she afraid of?" The older man says nothing, instead putting his words into his hands as he squeezes Tony's shoulder. "I wanted her to come home, every single day, I just wanted to hold her again."

  
"I know."

  
"But…" He pauses, sniffling, rotating his head on his shoulders. "But I just wish she had told me. I would have been there in a heartbeat. ‘Count to a million', I said. And I'd do it again, cross the planet for her. She was… no, she is my everything. And now, Tali. She's all I have left of her, but here's the kicker. Someone kidnapped her the day Ziva died before the firefighters could have arrived."

  
Around him, Gibbs moves about the house, the next thing he knows, the man is holding a bottle of beer before him. "You might need this." With a short thanks, Tony cracks open the beer and taking a couple of gulps. "You know that you are all my children, don't you?"

  
Tony nods, taking another swig of the beer.

  
"With Ziver," the man pauses. "It felt like I had Kelly back, it was like raising my little girl again." Tony was awestruck by his boss' words. He knew Ziva was like a daughter to the man, but he never knew he felt like this. "Did you know Ziva was only a couple years older than Kelly?"

  
No, he never really thought about it. Like he never thought about the age difference between him and his partner, but it makes sense. His Ziva was born in ‘82 while Kelly was born in ‘84, if they grew up as neighbors, they could have been friends. Best of friends.

  
"I took her in, pulled her under my wing. Like with Abby, I would do anything for her. But she was the baby of my family. She'd ask for anything, I'd drop everything and do it. When she called me, telling me that she wasn't coming home, that I wasn't picking both of you up from the airport, I drank myself to sleep that night." The man paused in his quiet monologue. "I had lost my baby girl again."

  
The room went quiet for a long time. Too long it felt. But in peace they drink, they drink to the memory of the woman they both love. They didn't stay a word until they hit the bottom of the bottle, mutually agreeing on another drink. With the pop of the bottle cap coming loose, Tony speaks up. "I have McGee getting Intel on Tali's kidnappers, getting help from Mossad where he can. Johnson and O'Riley are tracking down leads for suspects."

  
Gibbs doesn't respond, instead, he gets up off the couch. "Want a steak, DiNozzo?"

  
His eyes following his former boss to the kitchen and back out to the living room. "Yeah, sure." Tony continues to update him on the case as they eat.

  
***

  
It is closing in on midnight when Tony finally arrives home. He knows he should call his dad, let the man know that he has a granddaughter out there, somewhere in this city. Breaking the news to Gibbs was hard enough but to Senior? He might need the stronger stuff for such conversion.

  
Pulling out his cell phone, he unlocks it and scrolls to his father's contact number. Tapping it, he brings the phone to his ear as he unlocks his apartment door. The same apartment he's had since… since forever, really. Since he and Wendy broke up. There was only one change in the apartment in the time he has lived there.

  
Opening the door, the sound of something scraping against the hardwood flooring behind the door alerts him. Looking behind the door, he noticed something as he hears a faint ‘Hello? Junior?' coming from his phone.

  
Down behind his front door was a large envelope with ‘Anthony DiNozzo' written on it in childlike penmanship.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next chapter! Enjoy!

He looks down at the envelope in his hand, his name is written in red marker on the front. He knew who did it, who else could it have been? Tali. He doesn't know any other child who could have broken into his apartment, except maybe the kid down the hall. But he doubts the kid is skilled enough to get in here.

Tony looks around the room, noticing the picture he left on his end table had been moved, the one he holds dear to his heart. Pulling out his phone, he calls his senior agent.

“McGee.” His voice was groggy over the phone, probably only had an hours’ sleep before he had called him.

Turning on the spot, back to the envelope on the floor behind his door. “McGee, wake everyone up. My apartment was broken into.”

It took a few seconds before the younger man answers him. “At midnight? Tony, did you just get home?”

“Just get over here McGoo, if we want any sleep tonight, get a McMove-On.”

With a yawn, the agent responds, “On it boss” before hanging up. Tony, knowing it would take them a few minutes before his team got to his apartment, walks out. He only has one destination. The coffee shop.

***

Sobering up, Tony walks down the hall to his apartment with O’Riley on his tail. The young man was yawning loudly as they made their way to the door. As he opens the door, he hears Sandra and McGee coming off the elevator.

“Was it really her?” She asks.

“We won’t know until we get fingerprint evidence.”

Inside, everything was the same with how he left it, the envelope still on the floor, and little fingerprints all over his apartment. The team shuffles in, looking at the clean room around them. McGee is the only one who isn't surprised by the layout of the apartment, on the other hand, O'Riley looks like he's about to piss himself. Tony expects that he's worried about breaking something in his boss' place.

“Let’s make this quick so we can all get back to our beds.” He says before taking a sip of his second coffee of the night. 

"If we even make it there," O'Riley mutters under his breath.

Tony doesn’t have the energy to glare at the young probie, but he knew he was right. But he didn’t want to keep the agents up all night, there was no time sensitivity on the case, and they all work better after a rest.

He hopes Josh isn’t right.

McGee is the first one to get into action, grabbing his camera and taking pictures, along with O’Riley, beside them Sandra pulls out the equipment to dust for prints. Tony took this time to search the apartment, trying to find any hints that his daughter,  _ god, his daughter _ , left anything else behind or stole anything from him.

It didn’t take long for Johnson to call him back to the living room; McGee and O’Riley using their own dusters in the same room. “Boss, so far we’ve only found one set of prints, a child’s prints.”

“What’s the chance it’s Tali’s?”

"How could a child, a 10-year-old no less, unlock the front door of a secured apartment building?" Sandra looks him in the eye, mixed emotions in her gaze, but he could pick out the sadness in them. What could she possibly be sad about? It was his life, his  _ family _ he lost, not hers. It was his family that was killed before he had the chance to make Ziva his legal family. The woman pushing him away before he could propose.

But no. He lost his family, kidnapped before he could meet his daughter. These people, the ones who kidnapped Tali, just who are they? Why are they teaching her how to break into homes? Why? Why everything?

Tony turns to head to the kitchen with his own duster when McGee calls him over. “Tony,” The Senior Field Agent starts, holding the gray picture frame in his hand. “It looks like she spent most of her stay with this in her hand.” Tony lifts they frame from his agent’s hands, noting the dusted prints all over the edge. “If she really is your daughter, I’m not surprised she spent her stay with this picture.”

Gazing down at the woman in the frame, Tony smiles. It was taken so long ago, he hardly even recognized himself, a lot less gray hair back then. He remembers that day, Thanksgiving of 2012, McGee took the picture of him and Ziva, Ziva wrapped around his shoulders, her cheek pressed against his own, smiling. Happier times. He’d gotten a picture frame the same day he got the photo.

“I hope that she got good emotions from that photo as I do every time I look at it.”

Two hours pass before they are done collecting evidence from the crime scene; take it back to the evidence lock-up. Tony sends his team home to bed to get a couple of hours of sleep before their day starts again.

In the meantime, Tony checks into a hotel. There was only one thing left to do.

Call his father.

He takes a couple of deep breaths to get his mind in order before he pulls out his phone and dials the number. It rings five times before Senior finally picks up.

“Junior! What can I do for you at this time of night?” As frail as the man is getting, Senior still surprise him.

Tony paces in his spot, too wired to sit. “What are you doing awake?”

He could hear the smile and the fancy-dressed tux from over the phone. "I was just in a business meeting. If you want to make some money, you gotta be up and attem before your business partners do, that what I say."

He signed and paces some more. “Dad, ther- there is something I need to tell you.” Pausing, he wills himself to say more, but nothing comes. After a minute of silence, Senior speaks up.

“Yes, Junior? What is it?”

Finally, Tony sits on the edge of the hotel bed. “Ziva has a daughter.” He didn’t have to say it. 

“I knew there was something there, Junior.”

“Now is not the time Dad.” He brought his hand up to his face, rubbing his eyes.

“Just answer me one question: Why did you walk away?” His heart lurched.

He looks away, knowing that his father couldn’t see him. “It’s what she wanted.” And he’s regretted it every day since.

“Bullshit.” Shutting his eyes, he inhaled. “Women don’t know what they want. No wonder you never got married.”

“Dad, please.”

"No, listen to what I have to tell you." His father's voice all but boomed in his commanding voice. "When your mother was upset with what I'd done, I would never just leave her alone. I would go out and grab her some of her favorite things. I made sure our marriage worked; she would rather have me there with her, showing her that I loved her. Not getting on a plane and doing business in another country. She would still be here if you did not make that mistake Junior."

He was right, but that didn't stop Tony from snapping. "Do you have any idea how much I regret walking away? No matter what you tell me, it will not change the fact that my soul mate is dead." Tony says with a sigh. "But Tali…" He trails off, unable to come to terms with what had happened. "One crime scene, she leaves a single, deliberate fingerprint. And then in the next, she leaves them all over my apartment. I feel like she's gloating."

“That sounds like you.” Senior smirks over the phone.

“Dad, I’m too tired for this shit tonight.”

"You're the one who called at 4 am."

Flopping back on the bed, Tony sighs again. “I… I had to tell you. You had to hear it from me before she even thought of telling you. If she’s anything like Ziva, she already knows about you, and I’d rather have you hear it from me first.”

Senior stays silent for a moment before he says one last thing before hanging up. “I had a feeling you know? But I pushed it away when you said she was killed.”

***

When the sun shines through the hotel window, Tony groans and buries his face in the pillow. He’s not ready for the day to start; he hardly slept as it was as his mind kept going over the case in his head. He could always stay in his bed until his alarm went off. Maybe even close his eyes until then. Slowly, he closes his eyes.

What must've felt like seconds, his alarm went off on the bedside table. All but growling, he gets ready for the day.

An hour later, he walks into the bullpen to find Sandra and O'Riley hard at work. "Where's McGee?" He asks setting two coffees down on his desk, each filled with sugar.

"Right here, boss. I was checking in with Abby, updating her on the evidence we found last night." Glancing over at Tony's desk, he comments. "Didn't sleep, Tony?" Without answering verbally, the man glares at him, the bags under his eyes prominent on his face. "Did you hook up with a girl while you were in that hotel room?"

Gritting his teeth, Tony slaps the back of his senior field agent’s head. A good old fashion Gibbs Slap. “No! I was not with a woman Mc-Gee!” The younger man throws his hands up, holding them in front of him in defense.

“Whoa whoa, sorry. You look like a train wreck.”

"Well, wouldn't you if you found out about a child who was at two crime scenes?"

Around them, O'Riley and Sandra stay in their desks, not wanting to disturb their boss. He was already upset as it is. "Look, I get it, all right. You weren't expecting this, but you don't need to be taking it out on us."

“I won’t be taking it out on you if you didn’t keep your trap shut McNosey.” The two glare at each other, not taking their eyes away for a moment when Tony’s phone rings. “DiNozzo.”

“I got something.”

Without a blink, he replies. “Be right there, Abs.” Stepping away from McGee, he speaks to Sandra. “Find me a suspect. Today.”

***

The music is blaring in the lab, and he's not sure if it's just him getting old or if it is from the lack of sleep, but for once, it was giving him a headache. "Abby!" The woman kept staring. "Abs! Abs!" Wide-eyed, the Goth turns around. "The music! Turn it down!"

Abby says a silent ‘oh’ before she picks up the remote and turns down the techno music.

“How are you not deaf yet?” She shrugs, a smile plastered on her face. He strolls up to her, still wearing the same outfit as she always had. Life has been good for her. Her and her short skirts. “What’d got Abs?”

“Conformation.” Turning back to her computer screen, the women types quickly, pulling up the fingerprints that they had gathered in the middle of the night. “Your suspicions were correct. Tali David broke into your apartment last night.”

“And you couldn’t just tell me that with a phone call? I went all out and everything!” He says, holding up the Caf-Pow in his hand.

She reaches for it, pulling it close to her. “Aww, you shouldn’t have.” Taking some sips before slamming the cup down. “Now. You, sir, need to talk to someone about this.”

Rubbing his eyes, Tony lets out a sign. “I already have Abby.”

Crossing her arms, she leans on one foot. “Why don’t I believe you?”

"I swear it! I talked to my Dad and Gibbs last night. I had to tell them before she does." All these emotions he was letting out was tough on him, he couldn't keep doing this. And yet, he does. "I don't know how much Tali knows. I don't know if she knows about Gibbs and McGee, even you and me. I have to protect you."

Abby frowns. “Aww, Tony,” She wraps her arms around the man, her warm body pressed against his chest. “I love you too, but Tali is just a child, she’s not going to hurt us.”

The corner of his mouth lifts a touch, he was about to respond when his phone rings. “DiNozzo. Yeah? Yeah. Well, go get him!” Abby looks at him expectantly. “The team has a lead.”

***

“David David, 27 years old, Navy brat but never continued the family tradition of joining the core. The type of gun Abby matched to the murder weapon is the same make and model as to what David has registered to him.” Sandra tells him from observation, looking into the interrogation room where David and McGee sit talking.

On the other side of the glass, David shifts in his seat. McGee clears his throat, placing the folder down in front of him, he gets started. “Do you know why we called you here today, David?”

The man’s eyes shift from the mirror behind the agent to his eye. “They said Stephen is dead, and they wanted to talk to me about it.”

Opening the file, McGee pulls out a photo of the two men, Stephen and David. “Our sources tell us you and Stephen are close, best friends even.”

“We’re not friends anymore.”

The room goes quiet for a moment before McGee replies, “Why do you say that?”

David lurches forward, his hands slamming against the table. “Because! He’s sleeping with my little sister!” He snarls at him. “He betrayed my trust! I can never forgive him for that!”

“Well,” McGee looks down at the picture of Stephen and a young woman. “He’s no longer sleeping with your sister.”

David looks away, his face stoned. Quietly, he says, “And how would you know that?”

“Because he’s dead.” The hard face the man was holding was gone, the next sentence made the man’s jaw drop. “And we believe you did it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thought maybe Senior deserved some time in the spot light. Take some wisdom from him.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are about halfway through the story now, I can't wait for you guys to see what happens.
> 
> Enjoy!

“What?”

Behind the glass, the younger agents rock on their feet. The Probie had a few things still to learn if he wants to be a good agent. Tony watches from the observation room as McGee pulls out the picture of a gun.

"This is the model of gun used to kill Sergeant Morgan," McGee says, his arms folding together. "We have the technology to match it to yours." David stares down at the photo; Tony can barely see the man's jugular bobbing from behind the glass.

Abby walks into the observation room, bouncy as ever, even though she's just as old as Tony is himself. But unlike him, she doesn't show it, nor has ever acted it. "We need his gun," Abby states, her expression serious. "We can't just pull BS from our asses."

Tony smirks, crossing his arms over his chest. “It isn’t BS Abby,” He pauses dramatically in which he gathers his thoughts. “We gave him a hypothetical situation in which he can go to jail for.”

Beside him, Josh leans over to Sandra and whispers, “It sounded like BS to me.” In which Sandra nods along. Tony glares at the two younger agents; the two straighten their backs and shut their mouths.

“Get a judge on the phone; we need a warrant to search his place.”

***

The warrant came in an hour later and Tony mentally prepared himself for spending the rest of the day at David’s home. He doesn’t know what to expect when he gets there, but he knows one thing for certain. He would catch this killer. He always did.

But there was something distracting himself. He wasn't on his game. The feeling he has in the pit of his stomach every time I think about  _ her _ . The last 24 hours all he thought about is  _ her. _ Her curly brown locks descending past her shoulders, her olive skin tone that shines in the light, her round face and pinchable cheeks; well, if his grandmother had an opinion on it. And lastly, her light green eyes.

His green eyes.

It still frazzles him he has a daughter out there, somewhere. If he wasn't in the middle of a murder investigation, he would use every possible lead he could get to hunt her down. Tell her who he was. But not yet.

Besides, he has no idea what the people who kidnapped her has planned for her. Part of him even thinks the kidnappers could be the reason behind the murder. But there is no evidence. Only to this David guy. The ex-best friend who killed because he was sleeping with his sister.

Distracted by his musings, he nearly skips over the black safe stashed away in the man's underwear drawer. Pulling it out with his gloved hands, he calls to his team. "Got it!" It doesn't take long for Tony to hear the footsteps of his team coming up the stairs. "Huh," He says out loud, "This wasn't properly locked."

His team gathered around him as he opens the metal box, inside he finds a few scattered bullets. “It’s empty!” O’Riley gasps, his eyes not leaving the container.

“Search the property,” Tony commands. “Search the area. Find that gun.”

McGee calls in a team of agents to help search the property. It isn’t that big, but it took the team a few hours to search the house on top of the hours it took to find the safe box. By the time the sun was setting, the search moved to the outdoors with the extra agents.

They scan the ground over with metal detectors in the front and backyard as the sun began to set. Sandra calls O'Riley over to where she was at the side of the house. He, on the other hand, was searching behind the pile of wood that the suspect keeps at the back of his house. From there he can overhear their conversation.

“I need you to go through this.”

“I am not going through that garbage.”

“Except you are.”

“No, I’m not.”

“There might be evidence in there.”

“Then you go get it.”

“I’m not the probationary agent, O’Riley.”

"What? You're just going to pull rank on me?" He doesn't hear her reply, but he suspects the woman is smirking at the young man before the click clicks click of her heels echo and fade away. "Nice, real nice. I thought we were supposed to be FRIENDS, Sandra!" The boy shouts, rustling through the garbage can.

He chuckles to himself. The situation reminds him of many years ago when Ziva was a wee probie. Or even when McGee was a probie. He always did it to them, pulling rank that is. And it's only because when it was just the two of them, Gibbs had him dig through the trash.

He was about to walk around to the front of the house to continue his search along with the rest of the agents. He speaks to one of the agents in the front yard, taking in the information of where the agents have been sent so far to look. And yet nothing has shown up.

“Boss!”

Spinning on his heels, he marches towards the side of the house, meeting McGee at the garbage bins where O’Riley was holding a bag open. Both of the men look inside, finding a silver handgun. McGee holds up his camera to take a picture.

The revolver.

And with that, the last of the sunlight finally set.

***

He waits around in the lab while Abby is in the back room. It no longer bothers him to listen to the shooting inside the building, as usually, he isn't in the room when she's gathering bullet examples from weapons. He took years to become immune to the sound. His boss was the one usually in the room when she did it.

He glances over at a clear case that had the yellow envelope with his name on it. It was the same envelope from a couple of nights ago. It's only been two days since he found out about Tali? He looks inside the box, noticing a photo of the farmhouse fire from eight years before, and haze coming from inside, he wants to touch it, but he knows better than to. Written on the picture in red marker was ‘WHY?' and the headline to the newscast saying: ‘A woman is dead in a house fire'.

“Abs, wha-?”

"Is that? I'm trying to kill off any DNA that could have hidden in the powder I found on the inside. We don't need another plague incident." Abby says, walking in the room with a sample in her hand.

“Was it the plague?”

“Yahuh! I don’t know where your little girl could have gotten it from, but those people with her are dangerous, Tony! But instead of it being the Pneumonic Plague, it’s Bubonic, it can cause both Septicaemia and Pneumonic if left untreated. There was a moisture strip left on the back of the picture that was in the envelope. We are not infecting you again.” Abby commands, poking her finger into his chest before setting up the bullet to be examined.

A small smile mares his lips as he steps up to his longest friend, when she turns around, he pulls her in for a hug. “And I thank you for that.” He holds her close for a moment, needing the contact after everything he’s been through for the past few days. “Now, tell me this gun matches the murder weapon.”

"Yes, sir!" Typing quickly on her keyboard, Abby pulls up her sample and her evidence. It only takes a moment to adjust the slugs. Lining the two up, Tony has his answer. "We got our murder weapon!"

“Our suspect killed our Sergeant.”

***

After making a quick phone call to McGee, he meets the man in the interrogation hallway.

“What do you got, Boss?” Tony tosses the evidence container in the air for McGee to catch. He walks into observation as his senior field agent enters interrogation. Without missing a beat, slams the jar down on the table. “Explain this!” He shouts.

“I-I-I don’t know what this is.” The man panics.

McGee circles him, questioning him. “How do you  _ not _ know? It’s your gun!” He pushes. Tony could tell the sign of McGee getting impatient. “This is the bullet we extracted from your friend.”

"What?" David questions, Tony could have taken it as the truth coming from him if the evidence didn't point to him. "But how? I haven't even touched my gun in months!"

"David David, you're under arrest for the murder of Stephen Morgan," McGee says, standing the man up to cuff his hands behind his back.

“But I didn’t do it! Someone framed me!”

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I didn't get to update yesterday. I didn't get back from the birthday dinner until midnight. Also, this chapter is a bit slow, but important.
> 
> Enjoy!

"Who names their kid David David?" O'Riley questions, glancing at the screen with the criminal's name on it. The morning sun shines through the window, setting a dull glare on the TV screen.

Tony’s heart lurches. “Do you think he’s related to Ziva?” Only because they have the same last name, the question comes up, but she was the only one of her family to move to the US. According to her, her family stayed in Israel.

“What would the chances be?” Sandra asks, her voice soft while talking about the departed agent. 

McGee shift in his spot, glancing over at Tony. “Ziva doesn’t have any family left.” Tony glares at him, staring the man down until he speaks again. “Ok, besides Tali. But she told us her family has always lived in Israel. But see here, David was born here in DC, and so was his little sister. Parents moved here when they were kids with their families. So even if they were distantly related, they would have likely never met.”

"She never mentioned having family in the States," Tony adds, knowing the woman the best. Out of all the family she has mentioned, cousins weren't part of it. She had an aunt and uncle, but no mention of any cousins.

***

“Abby!” Tony calls from the doorway of the lab, an evidence bin in his hand, walking in to receive an ear blast of music. “Abby!” The woman pops her head out from behind the door to the middle room. Walking over to her, he hushes his tone. “Abs, we have 46 hours to show a judge our case in Sergeant Morgan’s murder.” The woman takes the bin from his hands, placing it on the table in the middle of the room.

"We got this Tony, we will put this murderer behind bars for killing our Marine," Abby reassures, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“I know, but this just makes little sense. We got the guy, but my gut is churning.”

"And we shall suppress the gut!" She vows, punching a fist to the air.

Tony nods to the woman, frowning at the sudden pain in his stomach.

One by one, Tony and Abby go over the evidence, pulling up the information on the screen and writing their notes on paper to go along with what they have. Before they knew it, hours go by and the words on the pages are getting blurry. Tony has been going through David David's social media pages, to see if he could find anything hinky, and yet nothing has shown up. Nothing tells him that the man was with anyone, or anywhere anyone could see him.

With 40 hours to go, he rubs his eyes. "All the evidence points to David." He sighs, grimacing when his stomach churned again.

“And all his social media is quiet, nothing tells us what he was doing at that time.”

Tony rolls his chair beside Abby. “And what did you say his cell phone was doing at the time of the murder?” He asks. “He says he was at home in bed. Nothing that tells us he has an alibi.”

Typing on her keyboard, she pulls up the phone records. A few more keystrokes, the green screen appears in front of him. “Off.”

“Off?”

Confirming, she repeats herself. “Off.”

Tony bites his lower lip and shifting in his seat. “The boy has nothing.”

Beside him, she frowns. He knows that Abby likes to put the criminals away, but she knows of the gut instinct more than anyone else. They both grew up on it with having Gibbs as a boss, she more so than himself. But if the evidence tells them that David was the murderer, then so it will be.

“We have the motive.” He says, straightening his back. “The Sergeant was sleeping with David’s little sister.” How weird would it have to be for someone to sleep with his best friend’s sister? They are pretty much family. That would be like Tony sleeping with McGee’s little sister, no matter how cute she was. Besides the fact that Sarah had a husband and kids now.

Abby turns to him, her pigtails bouncing off her face. "But is that really a warrant for murder?"

He smirks, giving his shoulder a little shrug. “Well Abs, that all depends on how young the sister was.”

***

It is coming along dinner time when Tony got back from the restaurant. He and Abby had agreed a few hours ago that she’ll gather more information while he went out and gather evidence at a new crime scene. A petty officer had been found dead on a Navy ship, Heroin and needles found on the bunk beside him. On the way back, he had picked up dinner for himself and the forensic scientist. Giving the woman a quick call, he summons her to the squad room after sending his team home for the night.

“What do you got Abs?” He smirks, shoveling a mouthful of food in. 

She connects her tablet to the monitor, pulls up O’Riley’s chair and sets it beside Tony’s desk. She sits, lifts her feet up to his desk, she gets settled with the tablet in her lap and her food in her hand. Taking her first bite, she pulls up a Facebook page. “Melissa David, age 19, graduated from high school last year. And according to this, she is a working girl at the local grocery store. I checked her records, she just applied for university. But there is one thing that came up you should see.”

Strolling down the page, she lands on a picture post. He looks over at her, his jaw clenched before looking back at the screen. “Is that a pregnancy test?”

“It is.” Taking another bite, she clicks on the picture. “And it’s even dated the other day. The night before the murder.”

“Could this be the reason David murdered Morgan?”

***

Abby sent him home, or at least to the hotel, for a couple of hours of sleep while she stays in the lab to work on a simulation.

“But what about you?” He asks. “You need to get some sleep too.”

She refused to sleep, playing it off as if she got plenty of sleep during the day, even though she didn't. He was with her for most of the day.

With 25 hours to go before the court time, Tony walks into the lab with a Caf-Pow and a coffee, leaving his team to work the new case. “Okay Abs, what do you gotta show me?” Handing her the drink, he walks around to the larger screen on the wall.

“I have questions, Tony.”

The green men on the screen of different situations. She plays the first one: The man walks into the room and the other man shoots him straight on, then the screen zooms in showing that the bullet hits none of the key points inside the skull.

“This first one doesn’t work, David would have to hit from a lower angle, so I made this one.” 

The little green men set up again, this time the second man in crouching down in the room, and as the first man walks into the room, the shot is fired.

"This one is close, but it doesn't hit the same point. So he must be in a similar position. But how would a trained marine not know someone has broken into his house?" She walks over to him, her drink in her hand. "And another thing."

“And what’s that Abs?”

“Why was Tali’s fingerprint in the house?”

***

Ten in the morning rolls around and with 22 hours to go before it is time for the trail, and Tony found himself in Vance’s office briefing him on the case. So far the entire evidence and motive points to David David, but Tony’s gut is still churning at the thought of putting the man behind bars. 

Tony plays the simulation video that Abby had created the night before.

"I see what you mean. It makes little sense." His no-nonsense voice rings through the room. "You have something on your mind, DiNozzo. What is it?"

Tony bites his lower lip, worried that he is about to make a mistake. A bad call.

“I’m thinking David wasn’t the murderer.” God, was he making a mistake?

Vance leans forward in his seat, his fingers interlacing.

“Then who was it?”

***

He takes Sandra with him to the police station where they are holding David. Walking up to the front desk, he pulls out his badge, flashing it. “Special Agents DiNozzo and Johnson, we dropped off a murder suspect yesterday morning. We want to ask him some more questions.”

The woman behind the counter nods, standing up and leading them over to their own interrogation room. He sits in the chair across from where the suspects sits and waits. After about 10 minutes, David is brought into the room in an orange jumpsuit and chains.

Calmly, Tony starts the new round of interrogation. “Who else was in the room when Sergeant Morgan was killed?”

The man looks away. “I told you before, I didn’t do it.”

Beside him, Sandra places the folder down on the table and opens it. “We have your gun, and we have your motive. Now who else was in the room with you when Sergeant Morgan was killed?” She pushes, placing the pictures from the folder in front of the man.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He mutters, not looking down at the photo before him.

Tony snaps. “You’re little sister! Sergeant Morgan got her pregnant!”

“I would never kill the father of my sister’s baby. I may hate the man for getting her pregnant, but I would never kill him!” He hisses, glaring at the agents.

“Then who stole your gun?” Tony yells, slamming his hands on the desk.

“I don’t know!”

"Listen, David," Tony says, "We have everything against you. All evidence points towards you! If you don't give us this information, tomorrow you'll be in prison."

David is quiet, biting his own lip.

After a couple of minutes of silence, Sandra pipes in, asking a question. "Do you know a Ziva David?" Tony swallows, wondering why his agent would ask such a question when he himself already gave them an answer.

But the answer floored him. “You’re the second person to have asked me that.” He stares the man in the eye, looking to see if he is telling the truth or not. He is.

“Who else asked you, David?”

“A little girl, maybe 10?”

Tony pulls the folder of pictures towards him, ruffling through them before he finds the one he is looking for. He pulls out the picture of Tali from her passport and flips it around towards the young man. "Is this the little girl?"

David nods, glancing from the photo to Tony’s eyes. “Yes.”

“Tell me about her.”

David shifts in his seat. “What is there to tell, really? She showed up at my door one day, I thought she was lost.” He says. “I invited her in so we could call the police and she asked me out of the blue if I knew a Ziva David. Sure we have the same last name, but that’s about it. When I told her no, I turned around, and she was gone. Just like that. Do you know who this girl is?”

Tony nods, gathering up the photos. He gets to his feet, tapping the folder on the desk before he leaves the room.

From inside the room, he hears David call again. “Who is she?”

***

Walking back into the bullpen with Sandra, he barks orders to O’Riley. “Put a BOLO out for Tali David. Just say ‘missing’, we don’t want the people she’s with to think we want her for any other reason.” He turns to McGee. “It will be a long night of searching, get us some coffee. You know what we need. And maybe some dinner. Chinese?”

With that he takes his leave and heads to the elevator going down, he had something to do. The door dings open and he steps in, the doors close behind him and he waits without pressing a button. Suddenly he lifts his hand and slaps the back of his head. And with that he presses the B1 button; the elevator moves.

Walking into the lab, he calls to the forensic scientist who is sitting at her desk.

“What can I do for you?” She asks, bouncing over to him.

“Abby, I need you to change the shooter in that simulation you made last night.”

She gives him a double take, her mouth agape. "To whom?"

“Tali.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are on the last two chapters! I can't wait for you guys to read it!
> 
> Enjoy!

The lab feels like it it’s getting colder the long he stands there. His blood is cool in his vain as he watches the video play before him. Part of him couldn’t believe it was true, but the other part was slapping him on the back of head for not realizing it beforehand.

“There is a 98% match that the shooter is from Tali’s height.”

“Of course.” He scoffs. Just who are these people that raised his daughter? Were they ex-Mossad officers? Terrorist? Who! “I couldn’t just have a normal daughter. I just happen to get the mini killing ninja for a daughter.” He rubs his eyes with both hands, trying to come to terms with this new development.

Abby smirks from where she stands. “Well, you liked Ziva being a trained mossad assassin.”

Twirling around to look at her, he glares. “That was different! Ziva was an adult when she first killed someone!”

“Barely.”

“She was in the army before she was in Mossad. She was trained by professionals, not by a pair of fake parents.”

She goes quiet for a bit, walking up to him and placing both hand on his shoulders. “Tony, you have to go get her, bring her in for questioning.” He nods, pulling the woman in for a hug before thanking her.

***

Walking into the bullpen, Tony informs his team. “It was Tali, she killed Morgan and blamed David for the murder.”

The room goes silent. “Are you sure boss?” O’Riley asks.

“How?” Sandra questions from her seat. “She’s only a child.”

“Never underestimate anyone, this girl has been missing for eight years, who knows what she has learned in that time.” He goes to stand in front of his computer and pulls up the simulation he had Abby make. Playing it, he points out to his two agents the match. “There is almost a 100% match between Tali’s height and the killer.”

“That would explain the lack of defense wounds.” Came Sandra’s response. 

Looking around, Tony finds something off. “Wait, where is McGoo? He’s missing the best part!” He looks at the clock, 6pm. “I’ve been down in the lab for over an hour!”

Sandra looks over at the senior field agent’s desk. “He should be back by now.” She pauses for a second. “I’ll try his cell.” She picks up the phone and dials the man’s number. “Straight to voicemail. His phone must be off.”

“Why would our McGeek turn off his cellphone, especially in the middle of a case?”

“You don’t think…?”

HIs musing was brought to a halt when O’Riley suddenly stands up from his desk. “Boss, we got an incoming video call.”

Tony looks up at him, his jaw slack. “Sandra, call Abby, get her to track this call. O’Riley, connect us and put it on the big monitor.” He orders, stepping towards the big screen.

The monitor goes black for an second before light flashes on the screen. A moment later McGee shows up on the screen. Behind him, Sandra and O’Riley audibly gasp. The agent was sitting in a wooden chair in the middle of the room, what looks like his hands and feet bound to together, tied to the chair.

“Tim.”

The camera turns and young Tali’s face appears on the screen. “I wondered when you were going to figure it out, Agent DiNozzo.” She says, her accent thick, placing the camera down so she can walk around to the back of the chair with a knife in her hand.

Clenching his fist, calmly he speaks to her. “Let him go Tali.”

The little girl giggles, raising her knife up and pressing it against McGee’s neck. “You will have to find us first.” And with that, the feed is cut and they are greeted with snow.

“Boss,” O’Riley says from his desk, his phone at his ear. “Abby has a location.”

***

The overcast sky threatens to rain when Tony pulls up to an abandoned building located in the middle of the city. A moment later, a second car pulls up with Sandra and O’Riley in it, as they get out, they all pull out their guns and head for the front door.

“We are here to arrest Tali, not to kill her.” He looks to his team, seriousness in his eyes. “Remember, she is just a child who was trained to kill. And we need to get those who trained her as well, to get them to admit what they did to her. Got it?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Yes, boss.”

Nodding, Tony raises his gun, glancing behind him to make sure his team was ready. With another nod, he kicks down the door.

The room was empty and dark, he pulls out his flashlight. His agents come up beside him, their flashlights pointing around the room. Tony’s light landing on the open door from across the room. Without saying a word, he walks towards the door. Sandra pushes herself up against the wall and O’Riley positions himself in front of the door, his gun at the ready. Tony opens the door the rest of the way, ready for a shooter to come out. But nothing came, just stairs. Sandra was the first one to go through the door, followed by O’Riley and then himself. 

Up the stairs they went, their guns pointed up to the next level. Sandra came to the door on the second level and opens it. “Boss, you need to see this.” She whispers. Walking into the room on the next floor, he finds two bodies laying on their backs on the floor, two males, both with gunshot wounds to the forehead. 

“Do you think she did this?”

O’Riley’s question felt like a punch to a gut. Could they help a child who not only murdered one person who never harmed them, but possibly be the killer of two more adults? “Maybe they were here to help Tali do whatever she is here to do?” Sandra offers.

“Who knows.” Walking around the dead bodies, he heads to the back of the room where he sees another door. Looking back to his agents, he gestures towards the door before walking towards it. Standing in front of the door, Sandra takes the door handle in her hand and O’Riley presses himself against the wall beside the door. Opening it, they find McGee still tied to the chair and Tali standing behind him with a gun to his head. Scanning the room to find no one else, they walk in.

“How nice for you to join us, agents.”

“Where are your teammates, Tali?” Tony asks, his gun pointed on the little girl.

She smirks, unnerving him. “You already saw them, I left their bodies out in the hallway.”

“And what about those who raised you?” He pushes, taking a step towards her.

She pushes the gun harder against McGee’s temple. “Ah! Stay where you are DiNozzo!”

Gulping, he stays where he is. “I know who you are Tali.” Tali glares at him hard, her lips turning into a frown. “I know you’re my daughter.”

“I’m no daughter of yours. I know you did it!” She growls, pointing the gun at him.

“Did what?” He raises his voice.

“You killed my mother!”

“Your mom and I were best friends! Why would I be part of the reason she’s dead? I’d do anything to save her! I crossed the planet to see her! How do you think you came to be?”

Her voice becomes quiet, the gun settling itself back on McGee’s temple. “All it takes is an order for someone to end up dead.”

“Is that why you’re here? Under orders Tali?” She doesn’t say anything, quiet for a few moments. Tony lowers his gun. “Who ordered the assassination of Ziva, Tali?”

“You did.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we finally hit the last chapter! Was this supposed to be updated yesterday? Oops, sorry about that. I was in bed sick all day.
> 
> Enjoy!

His jaw drops. “Why would I order Ziva’s death? I love her!” He shouts, trying to wrap his mind around it. He ordered the death of his soulmate? Impossible. Who told her this? Who was really behind her death?

“She was just another girl to you, you went through women like you’d go through tissues!” McGee barely gets a word out before Tali presses the barrel of the gun against his head. “She was nothing to you!”

Her words stops him in his tracks, stunned by what she has to stay before firing back. “She was everything to me!”

Behind him, O’Riley and Sandra keep their guns trained on Tali, ready to fire at a second's notice.

“Listen Tali, the last few months I got to spend with your mother, were the best months of my life. Why would I be the one behind her murder?” He steps forward again, one step at a time. “We think that it was the ones who kidnapped you were behind Ziva’s murder.”

“I was not kidnapped,” She sneers. “I was saved.”

McGee finally gets a word out. “Well, the country of Israel says otherwise.” Tali grabs his hair in her little hands and pushes the gun against his skull again.

“No!” She screams, her sudden movement throws McGee’s head back. “You are lying to me! My parents saved me from that fire! They would have never caused it!” She cries, tears starting to form in her eyes. “They love me! They would not lie to me!” The sobs in her voice giving away.

“I am your father, Tali, I have no reason to lie to you.” He takes another step forward, his gun still in his hand, pointed at the ground.

Tali squeezes her eyes shut, lifting her gun and cocks the weapon, aiming it at him. A shot goes off and Tony looks beside him, O’Riley gun is smoking and a bullet hole in the wall a foot from Tali’s body. Tali points her gun at the young man.

“No! Ceasefire! Ceasefire!” Tony tells, reaching for O’Riley’s gun, pushing it toward the ground. “She wasn’t going to shoot him! Tell him you weren’t going to shoot him!”

“I was not going to shoot him.” Tali says, her eyes wild, her gun still trained on the boy. “I swear.”

“Now,” Tony says, placing his gun on the floor in front of him. “Look at me Tali, forget about them. They aren’t going to hurt you.” Tali opens her mouth to argue, her gun still pointing at O’Riley. “I promise, they aren’t going to hurt you, ain’t that right O’Riley?”

“Right, boss.”

“Good, good.” He makes a motion with his hand, commanding his agents to lower their guns. “See Tali, we’re all good here.” He moves closer, keeping low and maintaining eye contact with her.

“Are you sure they aren’t going to shoot me?” She asks, her voice weavering on the spot.

Another step closer, almost a couple meters away from the little girl. “I’m sure, I promise.” Another step closer. “And I don’t like to break my promise.” Out of the corner of his eye, he sees McGee watching him closely. “Come with me Tali, and we can help you.”

Finally in front of her, he reaches out to grab the gun from her hand, careful of not letting it go off. Holding the gun out behind him, Sandra takes it from him, he takes both of the girl’s hands in his and stepping behind her. He strapped her hands together with zip ties.

“Let’s get you out of here.” Tony whispers to his daughter.

***

Tony grins as he walks into the bullpen. “Nothing is like a case closing.” He says cheerfully. “We caught the two criminals who kidnapped Tali when she was a toddler, and handed them off to Mossad for their punishment. Orli said that Tali can serve get punishment here in the good old USA! Hah!” He hands O’Riley his field report. “Nicely done Josh, we might just make a fine agent out of you just yet.”

The young man frowns, his eyebrows burrowing together. “I don’t have to redo it?”

“Nope!”

O’Riley gets up from his seat. “Are you sure? There wasn’t a typo or anything?”

“Look O’Riley, if you keep this up, I’m going to shred this file and make you write out the entire thing by hand next. So take it or leave it!”

Without another word, O’Riley takes the folder from his hand and sits down with it. McGee sits across the bullpen in his desk. “Nicely done, Josh! A little mix up yesterday at the scene, but you’re learning.” He smiles at the younger man. “My wife just might have killed me if I had died the other day.”

O’Riley’s mouth gaps like a fish, trying to see if he should be taken literally.

“Your wife would have killed you if you ended up in the hospital the other day.” Tony says, walking around to his desk. “You’ve been planning that dinner for a month!”

McGee leans back in his chair. “Yeah, don’t remind me.”

Sandra walks into the bullpen from wherever she was, and walks over to her desk. O’Riley asks. “What do we do with Tali now? I mean, she doesn’t have a home to go to, and she’s in a completely different country than what she was born in.”

“Well Josh,” Tony leans forward. “Tali will have to serve in a Detention Centre for juveniles for the next 10 years. For her, there is no getting out early for good behaviour. She will just have to serve her time.”

At her desk, Sandra frowns. “What a harsh punishment for a child.”

“Sad but true.” The squad room goes quiet, thinking about the little girl. Then Tony’s phone rings. “DiNozzo.” McGee and Sandra start packing up. “Grab your gear, we got a dead petty officer at Quantico.”

***

He greets the guards as he walks into the room. Before him, Tali is sitting at the table with her head down. The same place, different position, like it’s been for the past 32 weeks. 

“Hello Tali.” He greets her, sitting down across from where she sits. She doesn’t say anything. “Aren’t you going to say hello?”

She lifts her head, her curls extending down her back. “Hello Tony.” He lifts his hands to the table, grabbing her attention when he brings a white envelope to the table top with him. “What is that?”

He smiles. “This is for you. The director of Mossad gave it to me after I learned the truth about you. She said that she didn’t want me to have it until you were found. And now, here you are.” He hands the letter over to her, she hesitates before opening it. “It’s quite lengthy, but I’d thought you’d like to read it.”

She stares up at him in wonder as she reads the first few lines. 

_ ‘My love…’ _

Over the past few months, he had read the letter repeatedly and each time it still breaks his heart. She poured her heart out in this letter, telling him everything from finding out about the pregnancy to giving birth to their daughter. There is even a second letter attached to it of all the feelings she had during Tali’s baby and toddler years. All the way up until a month before her murder. There were inside jokes, memories, everything he could remember them doing together is in this letter. 

And now Tali is going to learn just what he had meant to her mom, and now what she had meant to him. 

A half an hour went by by the time Tali was finished reading her mom’s handwriting. Tony has patiently waiting for her to finish, knowing that she is still young and English is still her second language. 

“You never knew about me?” She asks softly, her voice small and barely heard over the sounds outside the four walls. 

He shakes his head, gathering his hands in front of him on the desk. “If I had known about her pregnancy, I would have been there in a heartbeat. As she mentioned, I had asked her to come home with me, begged for weeks, but she wouldn’t give in. It was a week later that she found out about you.”

“She was scared to tell you.” The eleven year old goes quiet for a bit, taking in the information. “I wish I could remember what she was like.”

He reaches a hand over to her, taking hers within his. “I have eight years of stories of Ziva, maybe I could tell you them, if you’re up for it.” He smiles softly. “And maybe…” He trails off, finding her gaze.

“Maybe?” She asks, looking up at him.

“Maybe when you get out of here... you can come stay with me? Get a fresh start?”

They hold each other’s gaze for many moments, not sure of what to say. Knowing that by the time she was released from juvie, that she will be an adult; 20 years old. Maybe, just maybe, if he can find her birth certificate, he can claim her as his own daughter again and get her to legally be in the country under her birth name.

Only time will tell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The End!
> 
> Let me know what you thought of it!


End file.
